Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0 Abstract This document defines the syntax for specifying pronunciation lexicons to be used by speech recognition and speech synthesis engines in voice browser applications. Status of this Document This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. This document is the first public Working Draft of the Pronunciation Lexicon specification, and has been produced by the W3C Voice Browser Activity for review by W3C Members and other interested parties. A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This document was produced under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. Per section 4 of the W3C Patent Policy, Working Group participants have 150 days from the title page date of this document to exclude essential claims from the W3C RF licensing requirements with respect to this document series. Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. <? <?
Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1 W3C Recommendation 7 September 2010 This version: Latest version: Previous version: Editors: Daniel C. 双志伟 (Zhi Wei Shuang), IBM Authors: Paolo Baggia, Loquendo Paul Bagshaw, France Telecom Michael Bodell, Microsoft 黄德智 (De Zhi Huang), France Telecom 楼晓雁 (Lou Xiaoyan), Toshiba Scott McGlashan, HP 陶建华 (Jianhua Tao), Chinese Academy of Sciences 严峻 (Yan Jun), iFLYTEK 胡方 (Hu Fang) (until 20 October 2009 while an Invited Expert) 康永国 (Yongguo Kang) (until 5 December 2007 while at Panasonic Corporation) 蒙美玲 (Helen Meng) (until 29 July 2009 while at Chinese University of Hong Kong) 王霞 (Wang Xia) (until 30 October 2006 while at Nokia) 夏海荣 (Xia Hairong) (until 2 August 2006 while at Panasonic Corporation) 吴志勇 (Zhiyong Wu) (until 29 July 2009 while at Chinese University of Hong Kong) See also translations. Abstract Status of this Document Table of Contents 1. Error 2.
Computer-coding the IPA: a proposed extension of SAMPA Summary version, not requiring an IPA character set. (Full version) John WellsDepartment of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London What follows is a proposed keyboard-compatible coding for the entire set of IPA symbols. These proposals are fully set out with a reasoned explanation, and all the correct IPA symbols, in my 7000-word draft article "Computer-coding the IPA: a proposed extension of SAMPA". Using these codes, you can for example include IPA-phonetic transcriptions of all kinds in e-mail messages or other forms of electronic exchange. This summary is in the form of two columns. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with terms used for the classification of sound-types and with the IPA Chart and the symbols shown on it. Note that IPA symbols belonging to the ordinary Roman lower-case alphabet (e.g. u, x) remain the same. X-SAMPA IPA Unicode (hex, dec) Consonants (pulmonic) Clicks bilabial O\ (O = capital letter) dental |\ (post)alveolar ! Ejectives, implosives Vowels
Text-to-Speech Overview | Text-to-Speech | EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines The ability to synthetically voice a publication is an important accessibility feature that many readers rely on, regardless of whether human narration is also provided (e.g., many readers prefer the faster playback that TTS engines make possible). While basic playback is possible so long as a reading system includes TTS technology, or access to a similarly-enabled assistive technology, any complexity in the vocabulary used typically leads to mispronunciations by synthetic speech engines without enhancement. EPUB 3 adds three new complimentary technologies to enable content authors to enhance the quality of TTS playback: PLS lexicons The Pronunciation Lexicon Specification defines an XML format for defining globally-applicable pronunciations. When words are encountered in the prose that match the defined entries, the provided pronunciation is used in place of the engine's default rendering. SSML markup CSS3 Speech properties
HTML5 Text to Speech, a Disruptive Innovation - ResponsiveVoice.JS | ResponsiveVoice.JS Because of its nature as a fairly new technology in HTML5, the inner workings of text-to-speech are not always understood correctly. What follows is an explanation of what is possible through text-to-speech, how it works (explained in basic English, don’t worry!) and how ResponsiveVoice can help you. What is speech synthesis? Speech synthesis is the artificial reproduction of human speech. How does speech synthesis work? Text-to-speech systems are usually made of two parts: first we have the front-end, which converts symbols (like numbers, or abbreviations) to their written-out counterparts, and also divides the text into sentences, so that even a text without any punctuation will have the pacing you’d expect in a normal conversation. So you’re basically generating mp3 files and then playing them? That is incorrect. Is native speech synthesis right for me? Probably, yes. But I really need an audio file! Try out ResponsiveVoice for free here
Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.0 W3C Recommendation 7 September 2004 This version: Latest version: Previous version: Editors: Daniel C. Mark R. Andrew Hunt, ScanSoft Please refer to the errata for this document, which may include some normative corrections. See also translations. Copyright ©1999 - 2004 W3C ® (MIT , ERCIM , Keio), All Rights Reserved. Abstract The Voice Browser Working Group has sought to develop standards to enable access to the Web using spoken interaction. Status of this Document This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. This document contains the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) 1.0 specification and is a W3C Recommendation. The design of SSML 1.0 has been widely reviewed (see the disposition of comments) and satisfies the Working Group's technical requirements. Comments are welcome on www-voice@w3.org (archive).
Epub in Calibre to speech I've Combined/Condensed the posts in this area, and am trying to post simple instructs/steps i'd appreciate any comments (and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism) to make this simpler/more understandable Included as a readme.txt on my archive uploads.... First this Archive/Torrent read me/Post assumes (requires) a few (free) things, and attempts to provide answers/instructs one, calibre as a library manager (download at second, the free VLC Player (download at and set your registry to open .zab files with vlc) third, the free reader/speaker/speechifier/TTS of epub format ebooks Download at ( fourth, the free calibre plugin "open with" (sorry no quick/easy download url but this mobileread page has the plugin zip, and instructs to install FAQ's What is a ZAB file extension ZAB = (Z)ipped (A)udio (B)ook so I just zip the file and rename the .zip extensions to .zab
The Best Text to Speech (TTS) Software Programs and Online Tools Text to Speech (TTS) software allows you to have text read aloud to you. This is useful for struggling readers and for writers, when editing and revising their work. You can also convert eBooks to audiobooks so you can listen to them on long drives. We’ve posted some websites here where you can find some good TTS software programs and online tools that are free or at least have free versions available. NaturalReader NaturalReader is a free TTS program that allows you to read aloud any text. Ultra Hal TTS Reader Ultra Hal TTS Reader is a program that will read text out loud in one of its many high quality voices. ReadClip ReadClip is a TTS reader that also offers a rich text editor that can read and spell check any text document, and allows you to manage several text and picture clips on the clipboard, and generate MP3 files. Read4Me TTS Clipboard Reader Kyrathasoft Text To Speech FeyRecorder yRead Panopreter Text2Speech Text2Speech is a free program that converts text into audible speech. DeskBot
SAMPA computer readable phonetic alphabet SAMPA (Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet) is a machine-readable phonetic alphabet. It was originally developed under the ESPRIT project 1541, SAM (Speech Assessment Methods) in 1987-89 by an international group of phoneticians, and was applied in the first instance to the European Communities languages Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, and Italian (by 1989); later to Norwegian and Swedish (by 1992); and subsequently to Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish (1993). Under the BABEL project, it has now been extended to Bulgarian, Estonian, Hungarian, Polish, and Romanian (1996). Where Unicode (ISO 10646) is not available or not appropriate, SAMPA and the proposed X-SAMPA (Extended SAMPA) constitute the best robust international collaborative basis for a standard machine-readable encoding of phonetic notation. SAMPA basically consists of a mapping of symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet onto ASCII codes in the range 33..127, the 7-bit printable ASCII characters.
PLS Lexicons | Text-to-Speech | EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines PLS lexicons provide control over the text-to-speech (TTS) playback rendering on conforming reading systems. A lexicon file is like a dictionary or look-up guide, allowing the pronunciations defined in it to be used in place of the default rendering when matching words are encountered. Defining words in a lexicon ensures that readers hear your work played back as expected, not based on the heuristics applied by the TTS engine on their reading system. Each PLS lexicon is an XML file with a root lexicon element. Lexicons are comprised of one or more lexeme entries, each of which defines the word(s) to match in grapheme element(s) and the replacement pronunciation to use in a phoneme element. The alias element can also be used to replace one word with another. The language of the lexicon and the phonetic alphabet used must both be defined on the root lexicon element. Note that PLS lexicons are not activated simply by being included in the EPUB container.
SSML | Text-to-Speech | EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines SSML — the Speech Synthesis Markup Language — provides a way for content creators to enhance the default synthetic speech rendering of their publications at the markup level. The liberal use of SSML ensures that anyone listening to your work via TTS playback hears the prose as intended, not based on the best guess of their rendering engine. The phoneme element from SSML has been implemented in EPUB 3 as a pair of attributes for defining pronunciations at the markup level: The ssml:alphabet attribute is used to set the default phonetic alphabet. The ssml:ph attribute is used to define the pronunciation for any element with text content or for which a phonetic pronunciation can be associated (e.g., an empty element whose voicing is derived from an attached attribute). (Support for the full SSML specification is not available in EPUB 3.) Unlike PLS lexicons, SSML provides fine-grained control over pronunciation at the markup level.